That Time Russia Tried To Team Up With China To Destroy The US Economy

Russian President Vladimir
Putin smiles during a meeting with German Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier (not pictured) in the Kremlin in Moscow
Dec. 18, 2007.REUTERS/Alexander
Zemlianichenko

They say you shouldn't kick a man when he's down, but that's
exactly what Russia tried to do back in 2008 when the United
States was at its lowest point in recent history.

You'll remember the housing crisis, of course.

In a recent BBC documentary
called "How China Fooled The World" then-Treasury
Secretary Hank Paulson recalls doing all he could to ensure that
mortgage insurers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's biggest outside
investors — the Chinese — didn't sell their stake in the
companies.

At the same time, however, Paulson learned that Russian officials
were working to ensure the opposite. They were trying to get the
Chinese to join them in selling Fannie and Freddie holdings to
gang up on the U.S.

Here's what he said in the documentary:

"Here I'm not going to name the senior person, but I was meeting
with someone… This person told me that the Chinese had received a
message from the Russians which was, 'Hey let's join together and
sell Fannie and Freddie securities on the market.' The Chinese
weren't going to do that but again, it just, it just drove home
to me how vulnerable I felt until we had put Fannie and Freddie
into conservatorship [the rescue plan for them, that was
eventually put in place]."

The Chinese didn't end up doing any of that, but this just goes
to show how ready and willing Russia has been to hurt the United
States at any point.